America's Best Hotel renamed Eagle's Nest

A name change that took effect in April became a lot more visible when the Eagle’s Nest Hotel sign went up Monday at 300 Gardner Expressway.

The hotel was franchised as an America’s Best Value Inn since early 2006. That ended in April when the franchise agreement ended and the business name officially changed.

“This is a trend in the market. We’ve had a lot of Quincy motels dropping their franchise agreements and there’s another one that’s going to do so in the next few days,” said Dave Ripper who manages the hotel.

“We feel our guests will be better served by us going independent. It’s a simple decision about what we’re getting for our money: the cost of franchising versus the return,” Ripper said.

The name focuses on the hotel’s view of the river.

The 118-room hotel started as a Ramada Inn in 1974. It went into bankruptcy and was bought by Carl Geisendorfer, president of Believers Broadcasting, in 2000 for $1.24 million. Geisendorfer did about $400,000 in renovations and operated it as the Shepherd’s Inn before it was sold at auction in December 2005.

Dennis Prock and Ted Siebers bought the property for $1.265 million and aligned it with America’s Best Value Inn a few months later.